Category: Space

  • Progress 57 arrives at the International Space Station

    Fifteen hours after the lose of the Orbital Sciences Cygnus spacecraft another cargo vehicle from Russia arrived successfully at the station.  Launched just six hours before, the Progress 57 completed it’s four orbit, six hour journey to the station with a successful docking at 9:08am EDT. Carrying almost three tonnes of supplies for the station,…

  • Orbital Sciences Orb-3 rocket explodes after liftoff #Orb3

    Following a scrub yesterday due to a boat breaking the range safety keep out area the Orbital Sciences Orb-3 mission made another attempt today. Following a very some and uneventful countdown the Antares rocket carrying the ‘Deke Slayton’ Cygnus lifted off on time at 6:22pm EDT, unfortunately approximately 6 seconds later a catastrophic failure occurred causing…

  • ISS Spacewalk EVA-40 (184) completed successfully

    The third spacewalk in as many weeks has been completed successfully by Cosmonauts Maksim Surayev and Aleksandr Samokutyayev, originally planned for approximately 6 hours the two worked way ahead of the timeline bringing the spacewalk to an end over 2 hours early. They completed the following tasks during the spacewalk – Removed and jettisoned Radiometriya…

  • ISS Spacewalk EVA-28 completed successfully

    While traveling at 17,133 mph 261 miles above the Earth Astronauts Reid Wiseman and Butch E. Wilmore took a 6h 34m excursion outside the space station today to perform a number of tasks needed for the continued operation and future changes to the ISS. The first task they completed was the replacement of the Power…

  • CCtCap is Back On

    On Oct. 9, under statutory authority available to it, NASA has decided to proceed with the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contracts awarded to The Boeing Company and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. notwithstanding the bid protest filed at the U.S. Government Accountability Office by Sierra Nevada Corporation. The agency recognizes that failure to provide the…

  • ISS Spacewalk US EVA-27 completed successfully

    Today NASA Astronaut Reid Wiseman and ESA Astronaut Alexander Gerst steps outside the International Space Station for a 6h 13m spacewalk. This was the first spacewalk for each of the Astronauts and was completed successfully. This was the 182nd spacewalk in support of the ISS for a total of 47d 14h 15m, During the spacewalk…

  • CCtCap on HOLD

    Due to the appeal by Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) of the CCtCap awards to Boeing and SpaceX both companies have been told to stop any work until the appeal process has been completed. SNC filed a complaint on 26th Sept 2014 with the Government Accountability Office (GAO), while full details of the complaint are not…

  • Soyuz TMA-14M hatches opened

    The three crew members Aleksandr Samokutyayev, Yelena Serova and Barry E. Wilmore aboard the Soyuz TMA-14M have now entered their home for the next six months. Following a smooth docking, leak checks were performed and the hatches opened allowing the crew to enter the station. Just before the hatches opened NASA confirmed that after the docking…

  • TMA-14M launches successfully

    A Soyuz TMA-14M carrying cosmonaut Aleksandr Samokutyayev, the first female cosmonaut Yelena Serova and astronaut Barry E. Wilmore lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome at 4:25pm EDT to begin a four orbit, six hour journey to the International Space Station to complete the Expedition 41 crew complement. Following a smooth ride to orbit the spacecraft transitioned…

  • India’s Mars Orbiter Mission successfully insert into Orbit

    Today India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft arrived at Mars and was successfully placed into orbit.  Launched 5th November, 13 days before NASA’s Maven the spacecraft, it took a slightly different route to Mars resulting in it arriving three days after MAVEN.  This is the first spacecraft from India to travel this far from Earth and it…